Rachel May and the DVD Hallows Part 3: There and Back Again A Bloggers Tale

Hello :-)


This is the third part of my DVD round up! Imagine, splitting something up into three long waffley episodes when it could have worked just as well as one solidly done post. As if anyone would do a thing like that…

The Wolverine 

*SPOILER ALERT* (contains spoilers for ‘X:Men 3 – The Last Stand’)

Just so we get our chronology right, the events of ‘The Wolverine’ are supposed to take place after the goings on of ‘X:Men 3 – The Last Stand’ where Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) killed Jean Grey. So at the beginning of ‘The Wolverine’ Logan is moping around the Canadian woods, feeling sorry for himself and making friends with grizzly bears. A stranger then arrives requesting the presence of Wolverine in Japan to meet with an old friend on his deathbed.


So after the colossal fuck up that was ‘X:Men Origins: Wolverine’, 20th Century Fox had nothing to lose. This most recent outing (not counting his amusing cameo in ‘X Men: First Class’) goes some of the way to making it up to Wolverine fans.


I loved the Japanese setting, it lends itself really well to the Wolverine mythology. The scenes on the bullet train and the wonderful funeral scene amongst the pagodas were great, it's just such a lovely location and goes some way to expand the X-Universe beyond the shores of the States.


Hugh Jackman is eminently watchable as the titular Wolverine and always has been. In a similar way to 'The Dark Knight Rises' he begins the story having shut himself off from the wider world and over the course of the movie tries to put himself back together again. It is refreshing to see a Superhero film where the plot allows for so much character development, especially in a movie like this that makes big decisions about its lead character that will impact on later films.

The 12A rating does make it an oddly bloodless film. The body count is pretty high but you never really see anything, especially in what could have been a particularly gruesome body-horror moment. Another thing that makes this film a bit limp in places is the utterly wet love interest. This is a gripe of mine; why oh why do screenwriters keep creating these ultra wimpy , simpering love interests for Superheroes? Mariko was like watching a 1950's Disney Princess without any of the charm.


This film also suffers when we arrive at the third act. After a fantastic scene where Logan is accosted by a team of Ninjas, the final fight scene is ridiculously OTT and not in a good way. The Viper character (an ineffective additional villain if ever I saw one) turns into Uma Thurman's Poision Ivy from Batman and Robin (NEVER something you want to invoke) and the final reveal is so utterly daft it was all I could do not to laugh.


Despite it's spineless female characters and stupid ending 'The Wolverine' is worth a watch. With some lovely set pieces, bags of character development and the most exciting mid-credits scene since 'Iron Man's intro to the "Avenger Initiative" I'm happy to report our favourite mutant can still deliver the goods.

The Wolverine is out on Blu-Ray and DVD now.

Only God Forgives

‘Only God Forgives’ is a neon tinted, mafia themed, greek tragedy, revenge thriller. Nicholas Winding Refn’s darling Ryan Gosling is Julian an American expatriate who runs a Muay Thai club in Bangkok that’s a front for a drug smuggling operation. Julian’s mother Crystal (Kristen Scott Thomas) flies in from America to identify the body of Julian’s brother Billy (Tom Burke). Crystal guilts Julian into hunting down his brother’s killers and unknowingly pitting himself against the unflinching Lieutenant Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm).


Gosling and Refn last worked together on the brilliant and brutal ‘Drive’, one of my favourite films of recent years. I’m also a huge fan of Refn’s outing with Tom Hardy ‘Bronson’.

This… this is different.

It looks ridiculously stylish, if nothing else this film is a testament to how well Refn can create an image. The neon lights of Bangkok add to the nightmarish, netherworld feel of the film and it had me appropriately on edge. There is, however, a thin line between coolly atmospheric and style over substance. For me ‘Only God Forgives’ stays too often into oblique dialogue and a general sense of ‘WTF is going on?!?!’.


The performances of Kristen Scott Thomas and Vithaya Pansringarm were just enough to keep me in my seat for the 90 minute run time. Both characters are nothing short of fucking terrifying. Crystal speaks in such a way that chills me to the bone and Lieutenant Chang’s seeming indifference to brutal acts of ultra violence is one of the most unnerving things I’ve seen in a film for a long time.


I genuinely don’t know whether or not to recommend ‘Only God Forgives’, it’s been about 9 months since I saw it and I still don’t know how to feel about it. I don’t like it as much as ‘Drive’ but then I’m not entirely sue if Refn is making films with the purpose of having people like them.


‘Only God Forgives’ is available of DVD and Blu-Ray now. 

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa

In ‘Alpha Papa’ we rejoin Alan (Steve Coogan) as we left him in his online mini-series, hosting ‘Mid Morning Matters’ on North Norfolk Digital. The station is taken over by new managers and undergoes an overhaul by way of a name change and the unceremonious sacking of Pat Farrell (Colm Meaney).


Pat takes this none too well and decides to crash the station launch with a chip on his shoulder and a shotgun in his hand. Pat takes many of the station employees hostage leaving Alan to step up to the plate and mediate between a potentially homicidal Pat and her majesty’s constabulary.

I’m a massive Alan Partridge fan as it is, even so ‘Alpha Papa’ is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time.


Placing Alan in the middle of a police siege is brilliant. Desperate and fame hungry Alan tries to exploit the situation for his own shameless self-promotion. Coogan knows the bones of this character and the film works best when Alan is left to be the hypocritical pedant we know and love.


There are a couple of mis-fires. There are some toilet humour, (literally) pants down moments that feel out of  step with the rest of the film but these are really minor things in a generally laugh-a-minute film.


‘Alpha Papa’ is such a British film in terms of location, cast and temperament. Parochial, petty, obsessed with the mundane Alan’s dalliance with the big screen is befittingly preoccupied with the petty.

‘Alpha Papa’ is on DVD and Blu-Ray now.

Frozen


‘Frozen’ is the story of two princess sisters Anna (Kristen Bell), a cute, clumsy optimist and Elsa (Idina Menzel) who was imbued with magical powers at birth. When Elsa comes of age she is crowned as Queen of Arendelle but things go awry and Elsa steals away to the mountains to live a life of solitude. Anna, blaming herself for her sister’s self-imposed exile sets off on an journey - teaming up with mountain man Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) and his reindeer Sven- to track Elsa down. Encountering arctic conditions, mystical trolls and an adorable snowman called Olaf (Josh Gad), Anna battles the elements in a race to save the kingdom.

Oh ‘Frozen’, how do I love thee, let me count the ways.

As a huge Disney fan I cannot begin to tell you how happy it makes me that they’re properly back on course. It is such a lovely story with brilliant characters; modern without doing away with Disney’s heritage and really, really funny.


The songs are properly lovely. Opening with ‘Do You Want to Build a Snowman’ the songs all tell stories and help the narrative along while being super fun. Husband and Wife writing duo Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez have penned some wonderful songs headed up by the Oscar winning ‘Let It Go’ to which I cannot listen without it bringing me to tears.


The songs are brought to life by a brilliant voice cast. Kristen Bell is adorable as the klutzy Anna, who is possibly the most ‘real’ Disney princess we have ever had. Elsa could so easily have been the film’s default antagonist but co-directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee haven’t played it as simply as that which pays dividends. The one the kids are going to go nuts for is Josh Gad’s utterly adorable Olaf the Snowman.


‘Frozen’ is pushing Disney in the best direction they could possibly go. Both times I went to see it in the theatre I fell utterly in love with it and it really stands up to repeat home viewings (an essential quality for a children’s film!). ‘Frozen’ is a gorgeous addition to the House of Mouse , I adore it.


'Frozen' is out now, buy it buy it BUY IT!!!!


So, that's that sorted, lets have a look at some...


Reasons to be Cheerful :-)


1. Amy Acker is going to be in ‘Marvels Agents of SHIELD’ :-) The Whedon regular is going to be playing Agent Coulson’s Cellist girlfriend! I’m looking forward to this, I really think ‘Agents of SHIELD’ has been picking up this second half of the season and this can only be a positive addition.

2. Last trailer for ‘X:Men Days of Future Past’! This one also has a lovely introduction from the lovely Hugh Jackman! It looks super awesomely exciting, and you know… PETER FUCKING DINKLAGE!!!


That’ll do for today!

Goodbye till next time :-)
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"This isn't freedom. This is fear,"

Hello :-)

Blockbuster season seems to be starting earlier and earlier doesn’t it?
Previously confined to the summer months, Blockbuster season has been creeping forward for the last few years riding on the wave created by the Marvel cinematic universe. This year it’s the turn of Captain America to kick things off.

In ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ (or Captain America 2, whatever you want to call it) takes place in Washington DC two years after the events of ‘Avengers Assemble’ here our Star Spangled Man (Chris Evans) is up against a more sinister threat; the enemy within.

Events are set in motion when the Cap and his team are given a hostage rescue mission aboard a hijacked ship. Everything goes according to plan but Steve is uneasy and his suspicions are confirmed when he discovers that Natasha Romanov/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) has been assigned a special mission of her own.

Captain America begins to pull on the thread that leads him to question whether he can trust Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) and S.H.I.E.L.D boss Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford). As events take a turn for the worse the Captain and Black Widow find themselves on the run and in the sights of the elusive Winter Soldier.

Straight off the bat I found ‘Captain America 2’ hugely enjoyable, more so than ‘Thor 2’. When the biggest problem you have with a film is “why did they bother putting real chairs in a room full of council members that appear via hologram?” you know things aren’t so bad.

This is very much a Superhero movie for today. In a world of phone tapping, e-mail hacking and constant CCTV surveillance, ‘Captain America 2’ has more than a whiff of the Edward Snowden about it. It’s a masterstroke, it makes perfect sense. Anthony and Joe Russo (who I’m familiar with from their work on the wonderful ‘Community’) have done a nice job making ‘Captain America 2’ more grown up, it’s still funny and doesn’t take itself too seriously but there’s a reality about it that keeps things grounded.

Another thing that struck me was the updated action sequences. Whilst the action in ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ was very old fashioned (which fit perfectly with that film) everything in this movie is sleeker, more fluid, even the Captain’s fighting style has been updated. It’s a less obvious improvement but I really liked it.

I have and always will argue that what’s so wonderful about Cap is his inherent goodness. Here, Cap is still his sweet, self-deprecating, wholesome self but notably less naive which is reinforced by how Evans has grown into the role. Cap’s USP is that he’s a man out of time which is nodded to quite nicely with a glimpse into his notebook of things to catch up with (“Star Wars Trek”) and a surprise visit to and old friend. For me these touches added the right level of reverence for what has gone before.

In a way that I never expected, Black Widow and Captain America make quite the team. His patriotism coupled with her cynicism make for a weirdly cohesive pairing. I love Scarlett Johansson and I especially love her as Black Widow. She’s given a lot more to do here than in previous films and she has a nice character arc to do with her own sense of identity and all the red in her infamous ledger. I love her and have everything crossed that she’ll get her own movie.

If I was going to get picky I’d say the obviousness of some of the reveals is a problem. You don’t have to work very hard to see who the bad guy is and the identity of the titular Winter Soldier is one I worked out from the very first posters. To make matters worse, when the film does look like it’s going in an unexpected direction it does a 180 degree turn an hour later, undoing all it’s good work.

Sadly for Marvel’s most subversive film to date it falls so easily into the same routine as the previous films. The wonderful Den of Geek has spoken about this before but for the time being it looks like every Superhero movie is going to end in a big fight. I can live with that as long as you try and differentiate your smashy crashy ending from all the other smashy crashy endings that have come before. Unfortunately ‘Captain America 2’ doesn’t mark itself out from all the other banging clanging finales but there are some repercussions to come out of ‘Captain America 2’ that will effect on the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, not to mention ‘Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD’ which I think is a really brave move.

At some point during the third act it does feel as though ‘Captain America 2’ stops being its own film and starts being another cog in the machine of the Marvel Cinematic Universe but that doesn’t undo all the good work of the previous hour and 45 minutes. More ‘Mission Impossible’ than any of the previous Marvel films, ‘Captain America The Winter Soldier’ stands on it’s own as a political thriller in the age of the Superhero movie.

So, let’s have a look at some…

Reasons to be Cheerful :-)

1. The red band trailer for ’22 Jump Street’ is out and it is hilarious. I joined the ’21 Jump Street’ bandwagon really late, it was the first film I watched on Netflix and I LOVED it :-) Phil Lord and Chris Miller's ’22 Jump Street’ is coming straight off the back of ‘The Lego Movie’ and it looks brilliant!

2. The trailer for ‘In The Flesh’ series 2 is here! I really loved the first series, only three episodes but I’m a massive zombie  fan and I thought ‘In The Flesh’ did something new and interesting with the genre. Series 2 is due to air in May and I’m really looking forward to it.

That’s all I’ve got for you today!

Goodbye till next time :-)

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“There are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity. Indeed that’s what we provide in our own modest, humble, insignificant… oh fuck it.”

Hello :-)

Wes Anderson is back after ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ his critically acclaimed and most commercially successful venture since 2001’s ‘The Royal Tennenbaums’. Mr Anderson’s newest offering is ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’.

‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ is a Matryoshka doll of a film; it’s a story within a story within a story and possibly within another story… it’s hard to keep count.
The story proper begins in 1932 during the heyday of the Grand Budapest Hotel, when future hotel owner Zero Moustafa (the younger played by Tony Revolori and the elder played by F. Murray Abraham) worked as a lobby boy. The fictional home of the Grand Budapest, Zubrowka, is on the verge of war, but this is of little consequence to Monsieur Gustave H (Ralph Fiennes) the Grand Budapest's loyal concierge. When Gustave is left a priceless painting in the will of aged client Madame D he is framed for murder and wrongly imprisoned. What follows is a crime caper the likes of which only Anderson could produce.

In the giant weighing scales of life I’ve decided I like Wes Anderson. I find his idiosyncratic directorial style charming and refreshingly simplistic in terms of editing. That said his films do does have a tendency to waffle on about not very much and I wouldn’t be the first to say that sometimes he strays into ‘style over substance’.

The main thing ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ has going for it is Ralph Finnes as Gustave H. Better known for his highbrow roles (although ‘Grand Budapest’ is hardly lowest common denominator comedy…), Finnes fits perfectly into this caper comedy. He has superb timing and a deadpan delivery that works so wonderfully here.
His partner in crime (or, more accurately, in innocence) newcomer Tony Revolori is an excellent foil to Gustave’s wonderful camp-ness. Their on screen chemistry is the films biggest draw and a source of constant amusement.
There is the standard raft of cameos you’d associate with Anderson but they’re incredibly fleeting. Its fun to see the roster play out across the sprightly 99 minute run time but the core of the film is always Finnes and Revolori.

I’ll tell you what this film is; it’s not just a Russian doll, its candyfloss. Like a massive bag of candyfloss it’s great fun while you’re eating it but all of a sudden it’s gone and you’re still hungry. That’s pretty much how I felt with ‘Grand Budapest’. It ends really abruptly and you don’t really have a lot to show for it.

This film may not win any new Anderson fans to the cause but there’s a still lot to love. It looks gorgeous and Ralph Finnes taps into his funny with eminently watchable results. It doesn’t have the same emotional pull as ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ and ultimately doesn’t amount to much; fluff it may be, but at least it’s funny while it lasts.

Right then lets do some…

Reasons to be Cheerful :-)
1. Frozen is the biggest animation in box office history. It’s now the 10th biggest grossing film of all time! It’s really really encouraging to see quality animation such as ‘Frozen’ making waves :-)

2. An ‘Alpha Papa’ sequel is in the works! Henry Normal, co-founder of Baby Cow, said there are plans for new episodes of an online series, Mid Morning Matters, as well as a new one-off programme for Sky, all exciting stuff :-)

That’s everything for now.

Goodbye till next time :-)
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